This career development award (CDA) supports the growth of Dr. David Rubin into an independent researcher focusing on outcomes for children in foster care. Dr. Rubin brings to this award his prior experience as a pediatrician, with particular expertise in child abuse and clinical epidemiology. His goal is to become an independent clinical investigator whose research focuses on improving placement stability, health, and well-being for these children. For his training, Dr. Rubin's career development will be guided by an outstanding multidisciplinary team of nationally recognized research mentors, including Anne Kazak, PhD (family systems psychology and well-being), Trevor Hadley, PhD (mental health services and vulnerable populations), Richard Gelles, PhD (child welfare policy), and J. Sanford Schwartz, MD (outcomes research). His program will consist of rigorous advanced didactic, practicum, and research-based training targeted towards skill development in areas directly relevant to his research interests, including the analysis of longitudinal data, skills in community based research, and experience in policy analysis, intervention development, and program evaluation. Dr. Rubin's research plan will use the results of The National Survey of Child &Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) to inform the development of a prospective cohort study of placement stability and well-being in his own community. The ultimate goal is to identify factors whose association with placement stability and/or well-being may inform the development of future interventions to improve outcomes in this population. The research plan proceeds from a more a general investigation of placement stability to a richer source of data on the factors that influence placement stability in the Philadelphia community. This plan is coupled to an increasingly richer analysis of data, moving from cross-sectional analyses to the application of more sophisticated methods of longitudinal data analysis. The proposed CDA thus will provide him with the range of research skills and experiences to focus on enhancing understanding of and informing future policy and interventions for children in foster care.